Day 5: Open and Inspired

Hey, how are you doing? Welcome to day five. How do you feel? What's going on with you? Are you starting to drop in, starting to enjoy this?

Today we have a new middle sequence. So we're going to start with the familiar child's flow, move into the middle sequence new, and then a little familiar ending. So why don't we get started, all right? So child's pose, child's pose, kind of can't do this enough, right? So push the hips back, find your knee placement, do all those things, right, that you're becoming more accustomed to, making it your own, developing your own sense of, you know, what feels right.

So let's start a little movement here. Come child's pose, move into the child's flow. Come forward on the inhale, maybe move your knees a little bit more hip width, exhale, that reverse up dog cobra all the way down, inhale, lift the chest cobra pose, exhale, push all the way back into child's pose. Inhale, table, exhale, reverse it down, just like a nice little flow down. This time we'll build into upward dog.

The middle sequence has a little bit more back bending, so let's prepare for that. Inhale, cobra, press into the hands, begin to straighten out the arms if you've got that, lifting the knees, the hips, the thighs, roll the shoulders back. Then on the exhale, bring the knees down and push all the way back into child's pose. Might feel an immediate counter pose in the low back there. Let's try that again.

Inhale into table, exhale, lower down, inhale, cobra, maybe upward facing dog, shoulders back, heart lifting, exhale, all the way back into child's pose. Inhale into table, pause here, exhale, inhale, cow pose, shoulders back, chest lifting, sit bones lift as well and exhale, cat, good, spread the shoulder blades. That for me feels so good when I really emphasize spreading the shoulder blades apart. Inhale back into a flat back, exhale, downward facing dog, walk it out, pedal it out, stretch it out, send those hips from side to side, like now, like day five, right? We're really beginning to kind of own it and if you're not yet, be patient, it'll come.

Because in the beginning, if you're brand new, it just feels a little overwhelming. So give yourself a little bit of time, and some of, and we're going to walk up to the front of the mat. So begin to take that slow stroll up, sometimes I like to come up onto the fingertips to give myself a little bit more space. Feet are hip width, bent knees, hands into the shins, half lift. Basically the half lift is lengthening the spine, breathing in, and exhale, fold comfortably into a forward bend.

From the forward bend, bend the knees, come up halfway again, lengthen the spine, brace the core, good. From here, stay connected to the core and hinge all the way up, sweeping the arms up overhead. Take a gentle little back bend, hips forward, tailbone down, and on the exhale, bring the palms right down to the chest and heart. So we're going to move into some sun salutations, some lunging and whatnot, right? So we're going to use these blocks.

If you don't like blocks, don't use them. If you'd like to use the blocks, have them nearby. So we'll put them right around here, we're going to move them around quite a bit. So place them alongside your feet, come back up to stand, pause, bring those palms back to the heart, take a breath. Now bring the arms out wide, sweep them up over your head, breathe in as you do so.

Exhale, a little soft bend in the knees, forward bend. Good. We're not going to use the blocks yet, so move them somewhere where they're not in the way. Inhale, lift the chest, lengthen the spine. On the exhale, step back into downward facing dog.

Good. From downward facing dog, come forward into a plank pose. Exhale, bring your knees down, bend the elbows, hug them into the side body. Inhale, cobra pose. Exhale, downward dog.

Look forward, breathe in. On the exhale, try taking two big steps. So exhale, right foot. Continue the exhale, left foot fold. Inhale, half lift.

And fold, exhale. Strong legs rise all the way up as you breathe in. And exhale, the palms to the heart. Inhale, bring the arms out and up. Exhale, forward bend.

Inhale, lift the chest, lift the heart. Exhale, grab a hold of the block, step your right foot back, bring the knee down, the right knee down. Put the blocks up on the highest level, point the right toes back, and let your left knee draw forward while lifting the chest up. So the big sensation is through that right side. You could back away a little bit, breathe in, and exhale, settle back in.

One more time, breathe in, back away, breathe out, settle back in. You can keep the blocks up high, curl the back toes, lift the right knee, breathe in. Exhale, step the right foot forward as you forward bend. Inhale, lift up halfway, exhale, fold hands on the blocks, left foot back, left knee down. Good.

Point the toes back of the left foot, hands up on the blocks, lift the chest. Find that range of motion, find the max threshold and then you move away, breathe in, breathe out, settle back in. Breathe in, move away, breathe out, settle back in. Good work. Good.

Now from here, curl the back toes, lift the left knee, breathe in, use your exhale to step the left foot up, forward bend. Inhale, lift halfway, exhale, fold. Exhale, rise all the way up, stretch as tall as you can and exhale the palms to the heart. Inhale, sweep the arms up overhead. Let's add a few things to this little flow.

Exhale, forward bend. Inhale up halfway. Exhale, right foot back, knee down. Here's where you kind of figure out where the blocks are most useful for you. So what we're going to do is you can stay in the lunge or begin to push the hips back and straighten out that right leg.

Now for some, because of the right knee, you might be right around here. For some of you, you can slide the blocks back a little bit more and bring your seat down to the right heel. You can lean into that left leg, you can stay here, you can do the same thing from up top just so you can maybe even lift the toes of that left foot, fold over. Come back into the lunge but step now the left foot back. Sit down on the heels if you've got that.

If you don't, stay upright. It's where we're going next. But bring yourself down into that sitting on your heels pose. Take the arms back behind you and push the chest up, push the heart up as you roll the shoulders back. If this feels so good and you go to the next pose, you don't like the next pose, you come right back here.

So next phase will be for you to come all the way up onto the shins, place the blocks alongside your outer edges of the ankles, draw the tailbone down a lot, almost tucking the tailbone, neutral pelvis. You can take the hands to your low back to support the low back and waist, pull the shoulders back, elbows back, lift the chest. This feels nice and you want a little bit more. Keep this position, thrust the hips forward, reach the right hand to the block, left hand to the block and then from here instead of dropping into the blocks, push the chest up almost like you're trying to lift the blocks up. Get a resting place for your head, good.

Now nice and even, left hand on the back, right hand on the back. Take a momentary child's pose to stretch that low back out, grab hold of the blocks, bring them all the way back up, come back up onto tabletop. You can keep the blocks underneath your hands from tabletop, take a breath and on your next breath out, step the right foot forward. So now we're on the right side, we can lunge in and out a couple times and then begin to work into more of that straight leg. So blocks high, blocks medium, hips can stay high, maybe point the toes up, fold over.

So we're looking for some hamstring stretching here for sure. If you want to sit back a little bit more, sit all the way back and fold over that single leg. Whichever choice you've made, it is a choice, so make sure you're making clear choices that help support you during this adventure. Come forward out of this, step back, we'll go right into, slide the blocks back, more of the heart opening, more of the back bend, right? So ensure that the tailbone is drawn down, we don't want to enter it with the compressed low back, tailbone drawn back, strong legs, reach the right arm up, circle it all the way back to the block, left arm up and all the way back, good.

Tailbone down, hips forward, heart lifting, 80%, right, you should be able to do this tomorrow and the next day and the next day, don't overdo it. Good, left hand on the back, right hand on the back, undo the toes, move the blocks out of the way so you've got plenty of space now, we're done with the blocks. From here, push the hips back, bring the legs together, maybe even hold the hands on the heels and fold your body over into a really tight snug child's pose. Trying to stretch out the back in the opposing way that we were just focusing on in camel. Stretch the arms all the way out, get a more lengthened child's pose here, hinge up into tabletop and take it up into downward dog on the exhale, pedal it out, walk it out.

From downward dog, let's set the knees down and transition into one of my favorites, the hip relief close out. So bring yourself down to the seat and you can get into the practice of lowering down with the knees either bent or straight, draw the chin in and roll slowly down. Once you land, draw the knees in, if ever your back is feeling tender, you can rock, do some big rocking side to side or big circular motions to kind of give yourself a little self love in the low back. Extend the left leg all the way out, right knee in. So knee to chest, you've done this before so it's about the hip groin and we throw in a twist toward the end.

So half happy baby, right hand on the inside of that leg, open the hip out as far as you'd like, slide the right hand up to the outer edge of the foot, stack the foot up over the knee, flirt with straightening that right leg. Left hand resting somewhere on the body, maybe even the left hip to ensure that it stays down. Good, place the right ankle on top of the left thigh as you bend that left leg. On the exhale, guide that right hip as far open and away from your body as possible. Take reclined pigeon now, lift the left foot up, interlace your fingers, all 10 fingers around either your hamstring or your left shin, which is my preference.

Get aligned here, good, make sure the back of your neck is long and when you exhale, you kind of pull the legs toward you a little bit to deepen that stretch. Most likely that stretch is in the outer right bum region, your outer hip, bring the left foot back down, slide your hips over to the right and take this figure four shape into a spinal twist, possibly releasing any surface tension or stress you're holding onto in the back or was accumulated through the last bit of the practice. How's your breath? The overall attitude approaching your practice, let's bring it right back out, set up, center yourself, bring the right foot down and before you go to the other side, let's take one breath together. Exhale, left leg in, extend that right leg out, open the hip as much as you'd like, as much as you can, begin to build into that half happy baby wherever the hold is for you.

Be patient, constantly listening though, listen, listen, listen, pay attention, don't force, pay attention to what feels right. Good, recline pigeon first, left ankle over that right thigh, guide the hip open, keep the hip open as you lift the right foot up, interlace the fingers wherever that hold is for you, good, exhale, draw the legs in, grab that stretch, the primary stretch, that outer left hip, your glute, your butt, whatever you want to call it, bring the right foot down, shift the hips to the left, find your spinal twist over to the right, adjust your legs as you wish, you can extend the right leg all the way out and cross that left leg even further over, you can keep the figure four shape and bring the left foot down toward the mat, got options my friends, good, bring it back out, realign, give one last hugging of the knees into the chest, bring the feet back down, stretch the right leg out, stretch the left leg out, rest the arms alongside the body, maybe even 6 to 10 or even 12 inches out away from the body, let the feet open up out wide, legs are relaxed, your back is grounded, maybe even take the hands behind the head, lift the chest, lift the back a little bit, stretch out the spine, place it back down, bring the arms alongside the body, take a deep breath, exhale feeling accomplished and grounded, two more breaths together here, breathe in like a nice fulfilling breath in and releasing exhalation out, one more time, breathe in and exhale let it all go, let's try drawing the knees in and rock back a little bit and then rock right up to sit, we face one another, we say hello once again and we close out by saying namaste, thank you, gratitude, super happy that you're here with me, happy with yourself for doing this, so thank you, thank you, thank you, namaste.